Good ideas are rare in Tallahassee. Kinda like brain surgeons at a snake-oil convention.
But Florida House Speaker Paul Renner announced an unusually good plan this week when he called for cutting Enterprise Florida and the state’s taxpayer-funded slush fund for private businesses.
That’s long overdue. Politicians and their crony/donor pals shouldn’t use tax dollars to subsidize some businesses and not others. Why should a few businesses get subsidies while the vast majority of start-ups have to pay their own way?
So I like the tough talk about cracking down on corporate welfare. But I’m not applauding yet. Why? Because we’ve seen this show before — and it was a farce.
A few years ago, Renner and former House Speaker Richard Corcoran made all sorts of similar chest-pounding motions, vowing to take on both Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida — the two taxpayer-funded agencies that promote certain businesses and industries in Florida. I was naive enough to cheer them on back then. But they backed off after their donor buddies amped up the pressure.
Today, your tax dollars are still subsidizing the marketing budgets of companies like Universal, Carnival and Disney. Yes, Disney — the company Florida Republicans want you to think they loathe.
See, the truth about most of this state’s top politicians is that they are beholden to big business above all else. Culture wars are merely distractions.
Virtually everything they do is about using your money and bending your laws to benefit their corporate donors. It’s why you see Gov. Ron DeSantis claiming there’s a “new sheriff in town” when it comes to Disney one week and Visit Florida using tax dollars to promote Disney the next. It’s all one big game.
So before we celebrate Renner’s plan to stop treating tax dollars like trough slop, let’s see what actually happens.
Also, aspects of the latest plan are strange, including the part where GOP legislators want to give Enterprise Florida’s duties to the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO). You remember DEO, right? That’s the division that presided over the state’s unemployment-benefits disaster.
DEO couldn’t handle the duties it already had. So why on earth would anyone suggest giving the agency even more?
It’s like asking the captain of the Titanic to steer a few more ships.
Some parts of the House’s Enterprise Florida bill (HB5) are solid — like the part that says the state should focus on growing industries that aren’t “subject to periodic layoffs, whether due to seasonality or sensitivity to volatile economic variables such as weather.” In other words: Don’t just try to grow more tourism jobs.
The bill says the state should focus on growing high-wage jobs and industries that actually make things. I’ve long agreed.
If there’s a role for government to play in economic development, it’s helping companies eager to start or expand in the Sunshine State clear bureaucratic hurdles and navigate a new landscape. But Enterprise Florida has operated more like an unaccountable slush fund. And its board members are a who’s-who of political influence in Florida — with reps from Publix, Spectrum, Florida Power & Light and the big banks, builders and insurance interests.
These are companies that cut big checks to the governor, legislators’ political committees and the two main parties. These industries and lobbyists expect things in return, and they usually get it.
Renner said this week that “Enterprise Florida has overpromised and underdelivered for years and drains funds from higher priorities.”
That’s probably true. But it’s been true for years while Renner and his pals kept steering millions of your tax dollars to them.
So what’s the difference this year? Florida Republicans need a distraction.
Insurance costs and utility rates are rising. Schools don’t have enough teachers. A million Floridians are slated to lose health insurance next month.
Florida’s current leaders may be experts at stoking racial tensions and cultural division, but they don’t know how to solve serious problems. So they’re trotting out something like this — something that looks courageous — to save face.
But again, they vowed before to take on the status quo and then caved.
So I won’t be a sucker and start cheering this time until they actually follow through. Because if they stand up to their corporate donors this time, it will be the first time.
smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
